Regulator: Royal Bank of Scotland Fined for IT Failure

British financial regulators have fined state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland a combined £56 million for a series of IT failures that left customers unable to access services, they said Thursday.

The fines, worth the equivalent of $87.6 million or 70 million euros, occurred in June 2012 for failures at also RBS units NatWest bank and Ulster Bank.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined RBS £42 million while the Prudential Regulation Authority, which is overseen by the Bank of England, imposed a penalty totaling £14 million, the watchdogs said in statements.

“Modern banking depends on effective, reliable and resilient IT systems," said Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FCA.

"The Banks' failures meant millions of customers were unable to carry out the banking transactions which keep businesses and people's everyday lives moving."

RBS chairman Philip Hampton on Thursday said that the failures had "revealed unacceptable weaknesses" in the bank's IT systems.

RBS has already paid more than £70 million in compensation to customers affected by the incidents.

The bank is about 80-percent owned by the British government after it was rescued with £45.5 billion of taxpayers' cash during the global financial crisis, making it the world's biggest-ever banking bailout.